Ladies Kickin' Ass
Welcome to "Ladies Kickin' Ass," the podcast where kickass women in the service and trades industries spill the real tea on making it big. Twice a week, host Tanya Wilson brings you the gritty, the pretty, and everything in between.
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Ladies Kickin' Ass
#120 - Kick Distractions to the Curb: Your Guide to Gettin' Shit Done
Hey, badasses! In today's solo episode, we're diving deep into becoming a total project and productivity ninja. Summer's here, and it's the perfect time to beat distractions and get shit done. I'll share five powerful tips to help you stay focused and efficient so you can make the most of your time and crush your goals. This episode builds on last week's discussion about giving yourself grace and prioritizing what truly matters. Let's become productivity ninjas together and make the rest of 2024 our best yet!
Key Takeaways:
- The Importance of Focus: Why staying focused is crucial for high-quality work and productivity.
- Dedicated Workspace: How creating a designated work area can mentally prepare you for productivity.
- Time Blocking: The power of defining specific blocks of time for tasks to stay organized and efficient.
- Pomodoro Technique: A time management method to improve focus and prevent burnout.
- Limit Digital Distractions: Tips to minimize interruptions from devices and notifications.
- Prioritizing Tasks: Using the Eisenhower Matrix to manage and prioritize tasks effectively.
Episode Highlights:
- Tanya shares personal struggles with focus and how she overcomes them.
- Practical advice on setting up a productive workspace.
- Insights into the benefits of time blocking and how to implement it.
- Explanation of the Pomodoro Technique and its effectiveness.
- Strategies to limit digital distractions and stay on task.
- How to use the Eisenhower Matrix to prioritize and delegate tasks.
Links and Resources Mentioned:
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- Join the highly anticipated BadAss Inner Circle community's waitlist for July 1st!
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Welcome to the Ladies Kickin' Ass Podcast, where we help you ignite your inner badass and create the service business of your dreams. I'm your host, tanya Wilson, and together we'll dive into inspiring stories and expert coaching to set your journey on fire. Hey badasses, welcome back to the podcast. Today we have a solo episode and today we're going to talk about becoming a total project and productivity. Ninja, that's right. I've got five tips to beat distractions and just get shit done this summer.
Speaker 1:This is something that I want to add on to last week's podcast, where we talked about giving yourself some grace and prioritizing what absolutely has to get done this summer, and then, you know, letting a few things, maybe go to the parking lot and stay there until kids go back into school. We get on a more structured schedule and we can really start focusing in and digging in on new projects for the end of 2024. Can you believe we are almost at the end of 2024 already? I just can't even. I can't even get there, like seriously, we're only halfway through, guys, halfway through 2024. So one of the things that I really want to just jump right into this episode and start talking about is the importance of focus. Why does focus even matter. Like it is insane how much focus ties to efficiency and productivity, because you get higher quality work times when you are focused.
Speaker 1:Now, if you're somebody like me who struggles with sitting still and focusing on one project at a time because you've got 15,000 tabs open in your brain, this episode is for you. I want to talk about this because I know this is something that I struggle with and when I really just go into a task and say, all right, I have to focus on this and clear my distractions, I can get so much more stuff done in a period of time that would have taken me so much longer. It's kind of like when you tell your kids go clean your room and then you're like, how come it's three hours from now and your room still looks exactly the same? Well, that was their task for the day and so they'll get it done. Eventually is kind of where they're living at with that and what we need to realize with ourselves is we do the same thing. But if, given a time frame, let's say, you got 30 minutes to clean your room, you got 30 minutes to make that podcast, you got 30 minutes to answer emails, and then we're moving on to the next task, we can stay a lot more focused and free ourselves from trying to do so many things at one time.
Speaker 1:I know forever being a hell of a multitasker was like this badge of honor and the number one thing everyone put on their freaking resumes. But, girl, it's impossible to actually multi-focus on several different things at one time. Like you just cannot do it and do things well. So we want to talk today about just eliminating some of the common distractions that can be your damn phone. Just start there Number one distraction, and if you don't think so, just let it go. Don't pause it, don't silence it, don't do anything with it. And just see how many notifications drive you crazy. My phone is never turned on volume wise because I would go nuts, but we think, oh, we've got the volume off of this, we're not being distracted. However, it's still sitting on my desk and every time a notification comes in, my phone lights up. And guess what I do? You got to look at it, you got to see what it is. Is it important? Is it not important? Use that, do not disturb, flip that bitch over or put it in another room so you're not even tempted to grab it and focus for a period of time. We're going to get into it here in a little bit. Even if you chunk it down to 25 minutes worth of time, nothing that's happening in that 25 minutes is going to be so detrimental that you can't come back from that. So just put it in even focus mode for 25 minutes at a time makes a massive difference.
Speaker 1:Lots of us are going to be working from home more this summer because we've got kids at home. So you know, eliminating household duties that you feel like you need to be doing I'm horrible at this. I'm like, oh, I'm going to do laundry and I'm going to work today, and then every time I set a timer like 40 minutes the laundry goes off. Then I go up there, then I start doing this and then it takes me a freaking hour to get focused again on this stuff I was working on before I went up to change the load of laundry. Does the laundry need to be done? Laundry, does the laundry need to be done? Yes, can you ask for help from your kids or your spouse to do that? Yes, can you maybe set a load and then just go do it during lunchtime and flip it? So instead of doing 10 loads of laundry during the day. You only get three done today, but that's okay because we are trying to shut down the distractions.
Speaker 1:Another one is having those kids running in and out, in and out of your office of where you are working at. What we want to do with that is we want to be very clear in communication with them. Mommy's got to work right now. Give me 30 minutes and then I'll come out here. It's amazing how well they'll just leave you alone to get your work done because they can't wait for mommy to be done, and the more they leave her alone, the quicker you're going to get that stuff done. You know it is noted all over the place If you look up statistics on focus and you look up statistics on distractions, how much it coincides with you feeling like you need to be at work 10, 12, 14 hours a day, how much it increases your stress level, how much it lowers productivity when you're constantly distracted by things. It takes you a good 7 to 15 minutes to recenter.
Speaker 1:I know there's so many people that every time an email comes in across their desk they get a notification that pops up on their computer screen and they have to check it every time. I refuse to do that with email. Email to me is somebody else's to-do list for me to do right now. I have to prioritize that time. If I'm going to check emails every single day, I give myself a 30-minute block and I will get through as many emails as I can for 30 minutes and if I don't get to them, they will get done tomorrow. If you are someone that needs to make sure that emails are being checked every day, you may want to look into getting an assistant or a VA for very inexpensive to filter all of those things, because, god knows, we get plenty of spam stuff that we spend most of our time filtering through in the first place.
Speaker 1:So what is it for you Like? Just take a moment and think about it. Like, what are your common distractions? And if you're not sure what those are, please pay attention to your day back at work tomorrow and write down every time you get distracted. Just keep a little notepad, just a little something here and just write it down every time you get distracted.
Speaker 1:Beeping phone. Someone came in my office and didn't respect my boundaries for my time. Blocking Kid came in here. Husband called, got to change the laundry. Dishes need to be done Whenever it is. That's pulling you away from what you dishes need to be done, like whenever it is. That's pulling you away from what you're trying to get done. Write it down and look at it. You would be shocked how many times you get drug into a distraction and get thrown off track Many times.
Speaker 1:To be real honest with you, I can get so much more stuff done If I go in. I lock myself in my office for two hours. I can get done what I get done in eight hours at my office, having an open door and having people come in and talk to me all the time, because as soon as somebody says that they need something, if you've got that servant heart and mentality, god knows that you're going to try to help them with it and put your stuff on the back burner. And this, ladies, is why we always feel like we never have enough fucking time for ourselves or to get all the shit done on our to-do list, because we're so busy doing stuff for everybody else. This summer we're going to become productivity ninjas and we are going to get the stuff done that we need to ourselves and then attend to what we need to get done. So tip number one.
Speaker 1:Create a dedicated workspace and what I mean by that is the importance of a dedicated workspace means I mentally walk in this door to my office. I have taken off my mom cap and put on my boss babe cap and now I am working. It truly is a thing that, if there's a physical, I walk into an office. This is my dedicated workspace. I know that I'm working when I'm in here. If you have an office that you go outside of your home to and you walk in that door and you know that you need to get shit done, shut the door behind yourself. Acknowledge everyone when you walk in. I always pop in and say hi to everybody and then say I've got some tasks I've got to get completed this morning. I'll be available at give them a time. Go and shut your door and get busy.
Speaker 1:Another thing, too, is making sure that your space is set up properly so that you can relax and get into work mode. If that's what you need to do, have a comfy chair, make sure that you've got all the tools that you need to have. Make sure that your shit is organized. I can't tell you how many times like come sit down. My office at my house is a great example of this. It's the only bedroom downstairs in our home, so every time there's like clutter or things that people are trying to hide, everything gets dumped on my desk. That has become a major no-no that nobody does that anymore. This is off limits for you to come and dump your stuff here. We do this to ourselves too. We bring in the mail and we set it on our desk. We push things to the side so that we can work on what's in front of us. When you have a cluttered desk, you will have a cluttered mind. So if you need to take some time, clean up that space so that you can focus and minimize the distractions of looking over and being like oh shit, I forgot to do what's on that post-it note. Oh yeah, I forgot to send that bill out. Oh yeah, I forgot to call this person back. Free yourself of those. Just let it go, let it go. Another thing I would say, too, is personalize your space. Make it a fun place to be at.
Speaker 1:I love the stuff that is in my office Like. I have a quote on my wall that I love so much. I have the. My husband gave me an anniversary gift. That's our wedding song written on a record. I have a huge poster in front of me right now that says do epic shit, which is my favorite thing in my in my septic business. I have candles, I have my vision board over here and I have my family over here on a bookshelf, and when I come in here I realize my why, because it's written right next to all those pictures with my family. I see accolades and things that I have accomplished over here, so it's great for incentivizing me to keep going and celebrating. Actually, I've got my motto of do epic shit above my head. I've got goals over here on my wall. I've got momentums behind me that make me so happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Find a place. I have a record player behind me. I could throw on a record. Listen to that, actually sit down, focus, get my work done. Also, make it a place that feels homey and it's a place you want to be at. Have great lighting. Don't be in somewhere where it's like fluorescent lights and your eyeballs are like draining out of your head by midday when you're trying to work, because that is stressful. We need to remove the stresses from our environment. Get a cool eucalyptus candle or a mint one, or something that really inspires focus. I love the ones from Bath and Body Works that are the stress candles. Oh my god, they smell so good and I just love to turn that on when I come in here. There's great association with feel, touch, sight, smell in places, so creating a dedicated workspace that, like you light that candle, you turn on that lamp, it really ignites the power inside of your brain to be like it's time to get creative, it's time to go to work.
Speaker 1:Tip number two that we're going to jump into here is called time blocking, and if you've listened to this podcast for any period of time, you know I talk about this all the time. My calendar is full of color coordinated time blocking, and I couldn't work without it. Some of you may be asking, though, what the hell is time blocking? What are you talking about? It's defining a block of time that tells you exactly what you're going to be doing during that time frame. So if I say on Mondays that I am going to, I have an event on my calendar on Mondays that is learning. So if I'm either reading something for an hour or if I'm watching part of a course that I'm doing for an hour, I have already defined that because I sat down and went through my schedule on Sunday, like we talked about last week's podcast. I know what I'm doing during that time, but that's what I'm doing during that time. On Wednesdays, I'm doing payroll and I have a whole hour and a half block set up that I'm doing payroll during this time. Nothing comes in between that. It cannot be moved. It is something that is constantly set up on my calendar so that it shows up every Wednesday, 8 am payroll.
Speaker 1:Things like this can give you a massive benefit in making sure that you get all your tasks done that you're responsible for, but also creating time and space for you to work on your business, not just in your business. It also creates time and space for you to be a mom and spend quality time with your kids, because there is no work things overlapping the time that you've blocked out for your kids. You put on there. Are you going to the gym every day? Do you take a walk every day? Put it in there. Time block it. Nothing else gets scheduled on top. Time blocking is also very important because it gives us time limits on how much time we have to do this task. So if I have payroll. I have an hour and a half to get this payroll done. That's it. So I know I have to focus and I have to get everything in, computed, figured out, all the stuff find the commissions do everything that needs to be done in an hour and a half to get that done, because after that I'm moving on to another new task. After that I have a meeting scheduled and so I have one and a half hours.
Speaker 1:It goes back to at the beginning of the podcast when we were talking about giving your kids 30 minutes to clean their room. You have them three hours. It'll take them three hours. You give them 30 minutes, they can get it done in 30 minutes. Do the same and expect the same from yourself. You define time for a task. It doesn't run on, and then all this other stuff gets pushed aside.
Speaker 1:Many times we're like, oh, we gotta check emails. Well, how many emails are you gonna check? I have emails from priority pumping, another one for priority pumping, and then I have my personal one for my family and all the personal stuff that I'm working on. I have my ladies kicking ass email that I have to check and look at that all the time. So I've got at least four email boxes that I'm managing. How much time am I going to set up for that? I have 30 minutes that I dedicate to email first thing in the morning and that is it. I get through as many of them as I possibly can, and every morning I start with a different one in case I didn't get through them all.
Speaker 1:Also become like a filtering ninja and unsubscribe to stuff that you don't want anymore. Many times we're like, oh shit, it's just faster to just delete all this stuff. Look it up. There's programs that you can jump into and you can unsubscribe from like everything all at once. It's super cool. So take a look at that. I know the new Microsoft Outlook allows you to do that in scanning your emails, finding out all the subscriptions that you have, and then you can go through and just mark them off and you can get rid of all the ones that you don't want anymore. I can't tell you how much more, how much quicker it makes your email checking when you're not checking it, with all of the promo emails that have also come to you. Now I know Gmail and some other providers have gotten pretty good about, you know, separating those things up their marketing emails, promotional emails, things like that. However, a lot of them still come through, so definitely look into that and then adjust your time blocks as you start settling into them.
Speaker 1:I'm at this point now where I have streamlined so much with my payroll. I just went through and fixed that in my calendar. I only need an hour to do that. I never go over an hour. I'm usually done in about 45 minutes and I'm looking to refine that even more. How can I cut this down even more? So maybe payroll only takes me 30 minutes? Then I've got that whole other chunk of time.
Speaker 1:Something else I would highly recommend that you look at on your calendar how many times do you schedule a meeting with someone on your team for an hour? That really could be done in 15 minutes. The important thing with that is communicating with them prior to the meeting and saying this is what we're going to be talking about X, y, z. Don't make it more than three big things that you're talking about. This is how you can help me in coming prepared with X, y, z, and then we'll round robin it around the room. We'll be done in 15 minutes. How cool would that be? So many of us block an hour's worth of time to have a meeting that literally could be done in 15 minutes.
Speaker 1:And I know a lot of people say, oh, why have meetings at all? Like you could just send an email? I'm a huge fan of getting in front of my team at least once a week, so that I'm getting them all together, so that we can all bounce ideas off of each other. We're all being updated at the same time and there's just that level of caring, camaraderie and culture building that you're doing when you are in front of your team. So give them that time, but make it efficient as hell, so that you're not spending all day long in meeting after meeting, after meeting, after meeting, after meeting. You don't even have time to sit down and actually think about what you were doing during that meeting, because you're just headed to another meeting Also during these meetings.
Speaker 1:Here's a little hack too. There's a program called otterai, o-t-t-e-r dot A-I, and it is a recording program that you can download the app for and you can access it on your laptop or desktop too, but you can connect it to like a Gmail calendar and in Otterai, every time you have something in your calendar, it will attend that meeting for you. So it will turn it on and record it. When you have stuff Now, you can go in and customize it to where it's like picking my kids up from school. I don't need to record that so I can exclude those appointments. But if you happen to be a little bit late, jumping on a zoom, if you, you know, want to have a team meeting and you don't want to sit there and have to take notes about everything, download this app, turn it on. At the end of it. It will like prioritize everything. It'll make to do lists for people. You can take the whole transcription and even throw it in chat GPT and be like write me meeting recap from this transcript and it will do everything for you, which is so, so, super cool. You may have to go in and tweak a few things, because, of course, I don't know who is talking in there, but it's been so incredibly helpful and a huge productivity time hack when it comes to having meetings and then making sure that you're recapping meetings and assigning out assignments that were made during the meeting through your Slack channel or however you communicate with your staff. So huge, huge, awesome thing. Tip number three I want to talk to you about a technique called the Pomodoro technique.
Speaker 1:Now, the Pomodoro technique is a time management method that was developed in the late 1980s. It's named after the Italian word for tomato. The technique is inspired by the tomato-shaped kitchen timer that the inventor used during his university days. The method aims to improve productivity by breaking work into manageable intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by a short break. It's super, highly effective if you can start implementing this in those tasks that you're doing. So this is how it works you choose a task, select the task that you want to work on, set a timer for 25 minutes, work on that task and focus solely on that task until the timer rings. That's it, no multitasking. Focus solely on the task. Then take a short break, take a five minute break, rest, stretch I like to get up.
Speaker 1:Brenda Burchard teaches you some stuff about stretching and like beating your nerve endings into coming back around. I believe he calls it chikung, but it is really awesome. Stretch, fill your body, get up and move. After completing four cycles of those things from time blocks that you have, then you can take a longer break, like 15 to 30 minutes. But if you will sit down and you will focus, how many times do we time block something for two hours at a time, like who the hell's going to sit there for two hours? I know I'm going to have to get up and pee at least three times during that, so that's not going to work for me. But when I start implementing something like this into my time blocking schedules, you're like great, I'm going to work on creating this specific process for running payroll for my business, for example. I'm going to time block this so that I can do it in two hours. Okay, so I'm time blocking this. I'm also going to set a little timer on my watch that tells me to get up and move every 25 minutes. Now, I know that sounds like a lot on the front side, but when you will prepare yourself for things like this and have it built in like something like your watch or a timer sitting on your desk, so so, so helpful and you will gain so much more time back in the long run.
Speaker 1:By committing to work for just 25 minutes, you reduce that mental barrier to stay focused for long periods of time. Let's be real, like when they used to say like we have the attention of a goldfish, like I'm pretty sure it's shorter than that now, and if you have a teenager and you watch them scroll TikTok, you definitely know what I'm talking about. But you also, when you take regular breaks, you prevent that fatigue and that burnout. How many times do you stand up from your desk? I know I do this and I'm like, oh my god, my butt is numb, like because you've literally been sitting there for three hours trying to work on something. It also helps you prioritize your tasks, work more efficiently. It also creates a sense of urgency to get that task done. If you can look over and you're like, oh shit, I've only got 15 minutes to get this done, instead of being like, oh my God, you know there's four more hours in my day here at the office, I guess I'll get it done when I get it done. It just tracks better awareness of what your work habits are too. If you find yourself struggling with this in 25 minute increments, if you're somebody that really struggles with focusing, then definitely set it for 15 to start, set it for 10 to start and just try to focus. There are many tools and apps that you can even download for this that you can do. That will help you create better focus practices. I highly recommend just setting that timer in your watch, or actually getting the old tomato shaped kitchen timer, like it was named after, and just doing it the old fashioned way.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we let technology kind of come in and we're like this is dumb, like just get a timer, a digital kitchen timer, even set it for 25 minutes and go to town. Tip number let's see where are we here. Tip number four. Tip number four limit digital distractions. This one, kind of, is a real bitch in our day and age, because we are constantly inundated with digital distractions, whether it's on your desktop because it's a new email that came in or because you have another appointment that you're going to, or there's a ding from you know LinkedIn that says your profile has been looked at 44 times, or there's a thing that comes from Facebook that you know your high school teacher posted something to their story. I'm like, oh my God, who gives a shit? Go through if you're going to have notifications for social media first and foremost, and just like filter the hell out of that, because if you do not, they're just going to get more aggressive, because their job is to get you on those platforms for as long as humanly possible. That's how they make money off of advertisers. It's because so many people are scrolling and so many people are clicking and so people keep paying to be on there. You know you have a business. You're probably advertising on it yourself, so you get it.
Speaker 1:However, when you're trying to become a productivity ninja, that's not a great thing to have happen during your day. All day long, set the focus on your phone. Turn that thing over. Do not look at it like we just talked about with the Pomodoro technique. Set it for 25 minutes. Nothing is going to blow up in 25 minutes. You can do it.
Speaker 1:You know you look back on like times before we had cell phones and if you're 40 plus, you know of those times still nothing happened In those little times and periods that we think that we don't pick up our phone very much. You know like nothing happens in there. And if you think, oh, I'm pretty good on my phone I'm not sure that I even really look at my phone that much I would highly recommend that you jump on your phone and you look at how many hours a day you're on things and how many damn times you pick up your phone. They're so smart now they know how many hundreds yes, I'm saying hundreds of times we subconsciously pick up that phone. You pick it up. It's such a habit to pick it up.
Speaker 1:I watch my children like trying to take the trash out and they're still watching a video. I watch them trying to eat cereal or wash a dish with one hand because they're still holding their phone and watching a video. I watched them trying to eat cereal or wash a dish with one hand because they're still holding their phone and watching a video. I'm like what the hell is happening? Put your phone down. You're not going to die and everybody's going to be fine. We're just going to put that out in the universe for 25 minutes at a time so that you can focus. I know there's tons of apps and things that you can do.
Speaker 1:Stay focused, freedom, different things. At some point you need to just be okay with just turning it off. When we unplug, we recharge. Say that again when we unplug, we recharge, because we were never intended to be plugged into that in the first place. Think about that, your mindset. Freedom is worth so much more than picking up that phone hundreds of times a day. Limiting distractions is one of the number one things that will allow you to become a productivity ninja, and we don't even realize how many times it's happening to us. Watch your phone for one day and see how many times you pick it up. You'll be shocked how many times. And it's not necessarily that you need to get on there and check anything. It is just become a habit for all of us and we all know that we can get better at it. For all of us, and we all know that we can get better at it.
Speaker 1:Tip number five is then prioritizing your tasks. Now there is a little matrix that actually President Dwight Eisenhower came up with that you may have heard of referred to as the Eisenhower matrix, and how that actually works is you take your tasks right and you just have a board. So I have a little board that shows the four quadrants. In those four quadrants, this is what it says Urgent and important is one box, not urgent but important is a box. Urgent and not important is a box not urgent, not important is a box. Now, why the hell would you spend so much time doing this? Well, that's a benefit of prioritizing your tasks. It helps you identify and focus on the tasks that truly matter, reducing your stress by having those last minute rushes to do stuff. How many times do you have a to-do list and you end up doing all the easy shit first because, well, it's easier and that's where our brains want to go. And then you're like but the important thing was that I get this done. And now it's four o'clock, now I'm going home and now I got to try to be mom and get the stuff done, and by the end of it you're probably screaming at somebody no, just me.
Speaker 1:You have to make sure that you can prioritize your tasks every single day If you want to become a productivity ninja. What? Every single day? If you want to become a productivity ninja, what I say is do the hard stuff first. Get the hard stuff out of the way first. For me, we talk about it all the time, like bookkeeping, financial tasks, things like that. They're not my favorite thing to do at my business. I'm learning to love them, but they're still not my favorite thing to do. But when those days come that I have to do that, just like running my payroll is from eight to nine in the morning. It is because it is the first things that I get done, because then after that I one have to look forward to, like the creativity I get to write blogs, I get to do videos, I get to record these podcasts. These are things that I love to do, and not that they're not important as the other stuff. It's just I put the hard stuff first. Do hard things first thing in the morning Also, I believe, leads to building greater confidence in your ability to get shit done.
Speaker 1:Just a thought, but part of this Eisenhower matrix that maybe you're like, I don't really understand the difference between urgent and important and urgent but not important. So let's talk about what might fall into those things, the quadrant one urgent and important. We do these tasks immediately, right. The other ones can be scheduled in our calendar. We can delegate the ones that are urgent but not important and then we can eliminate or minimize the tasks that aren't urgent and aren't really important. Who can help us with this? My husband asked me every day what can I help you with today? And I'm like I don't know until I sit down and go through this stuff. And then I'm like, oh, that kind of falls into urgent but not important that I do it. He could totally swing by the store and pick up what I need for groceries for dinner tonight. I don't have to do that and then I can ask somebody to help me. So more examples of this.
Speaker 1:Like quadrant one, your urgent and important stuff would be deadline driven projects, emergency meetings that you need to have. I got to get bills paid today. I got to get payroll ran. Right now I have there are important things that require your attention and your specialty knowledge to get those things done. Quadrant two important but not urgent is like planning Some of the things like personal development, relationship building, going to meet people, going out to those networking events, sitting down and getting stuff done for yourself or planning things for the future Very important but not as urgent like got to get them done right now. So it's something that can be on your calendar.
Speaker 1:For me first thing in the morning. Personal development is so important to me and y'all know that I'm a member of Growth Day and Ultra with Brendan Burchard and it is something I look forward to every morning. Within the Growth Day app they do a daily fire where Brendan talks about something that has to do with enriching your personal development and it's so important to me because it gives me something to think about. It gives me something to journal about that day and something to focus on, maybe trying to get a little bit better at, or things that I need to focus on working on. So very important, but not urgent.
Speaker 1:Now, quadrant three is urgent but not important. These are things that you can have someone else help you with Non-critical emails, interruptions from co-workers, routine tasks that others can handle going to the grocery store I actually have a family friend that helps pick up my kids from school. I get to finish my work day, come home and be completely strong and work free for them, or I can leave halfway through my workday, pick them up, come home then reset up everything, because now I got to start working again because I lost those other hours in there. So totally fine. However, you want to set that up with what that is, and, of course, this is different for everybody, because what I deem is urgent and important might not be urgent and important to you. So I would advise you to take a look at your to-do list and then kind of separate it out. This way, it's not something that you have to sit down and write every day.
Speaker 1:Once you start thinking about these four appropriations of those tasks, then it will just become second nature and you'll just start going through them Like yep, got to do, got to do first thing. I can have someone do this and you can kind of prioritize it a little bit differently. And then quadrant four is just dumb shit that we think we have to do, that we really don't have to do, like binge watching Netflix shows, scrolling through social media, you know just low priority, busy work, stuff that we don't need to be doing in the first place. Can that be given to someone else? If it's stuff that needs to be done but is very low priority Like I don't need to organize my pantry right now when I have a deadline for something else to be done, but many times because it's on our to-do list to organize the pantry, we end up organizing the pantry and then freaking out because now we've got a deadline, that we spent half of our day organizing a pantry and not getting our shit done. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:I hope this is super helpful for all of you, because this is something that we all struggle with. We really do and becoming a productivity ninja meaning you can just kick the shit out of your day because you know what is important and you know how to prioritize your day, so at the end of the day you don't feel burnt out and that you haven't wasted your time doing aimless things? How many times do you leave your office when you're like, oh my God, I don't feel like I got anything done. Today, I was busy as shit, but I didn't get anything done. Those are the worst days for me, because I know at that point I have wasted my time on stuff that I shouldn't have been doing in the first place. So I just want to encourage you through this podcast. I know I've given you 37 minutes of five tips on how to become better with productivity.
Speaker 1:Pick one and go from there. Whether it's creating a beautiful, peaceful place to work at, whether it is setting up your calendar to include some time blocks and actually restricting yourself a little bit on the time you give yourself to get things done, that's not a bad thing. That's a great thing, because in the end, you end up freeing up more time for yourself, using the Pomodoro technique, which means you set a timer for a specific amount of time suggest it at 25 minutes or start at 10, if that's what helps and then get up and stretch and walk around for five minutes, come back in, sit down, focus One thing. You're focusing on one task. You're not Amazon-ing while you're trying to create an email blast okay. Amazoning while you're trying to create an email blast Okay, see.
Speaker 1:Number four is limit digital distractions. Shut the damn phone off. Just put it in another room, put it on the charger. It will thank you, your task will thank you. You're going to get so much more stuff done and then you can read about all the lovely things happening on in the world after you get your stuff done. That is most important. Shut off those notifications on your desktop. No one needs to know every time they get an email that comes in. Seriously, nobody does.
Speaker 1:Tip number five is prioritize the task with the Eisenhower matrix Again. Is it urgent and important? Is it urgent but not important? Is it important but not urgent or not urgent and not important? And figure out a way to delegate your to-do list to make sure that you're having the most productive day ever, but that you don't have to do it all yourself. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing when we realize that our value as women, our value as moms, our value as bosses, our values as wives, is not based upon what we get done on our to-do list every day. Your value is the effort that you're putting into that. Your value is who you are. Your value is that you keep showing up and you keep trying to refine and you keep taking little tips like this to help you become better at what you want to do, by helping you be able to create time and space to really work on those passion projects, to really be able to be present as a mom or a wife or a friend or sister.
Speaker 1:It's really about giving yourself that me time that you just seem to can't find any time for. You can find the time that you just seem to can't find any time for. You can find the time. And if you'll follow these productivity hacks that I have given you today, you will be seeing a complete difference in the way that you manage your day, the amount of time you have left If you finish something in a smaller time block, in a time block quicker than you had anticipated. Take some time for yourself, stretch, meditate, breathe, think. Don't jump right into another task. As entrepreneurs, we're really good about just continuing on and on, and on and on, and we just keep adding to our plate. Stop, feel and think, and on and on, and we just keep adding to our plate. Stop, feel and think. I think those things right there in themselves is what leads to having an incredibly productive lifestyle, because you're able to spend time thinking about stuff you've learned, thinking about the stuff you've accomplished and really being able to celebrate in your mind for being a total badass at whatever you choose to do.
Speaker 1:Thanks for being part of the ladies kick and ass community. Cheers to all you badass women out there. Keep rocking your power, igniting your fire and making waves in the service industry. If you love today's episode, please do me a quick favor. Take a screenshot, post it and tag us at Ladies Kickin' Ass. Be sure to include the link to your favorite episode. Your support in spreading the word means the world to us as we aim to empower even more women. Hit that subscribe button to stay tuned for more Kick-Ass episodes. And don't forget a five-star review is the ultimate high five. Connect with us on social media. All the links are in the show notes. Thank you for being part of our tribe. Now go kick some serious ass lady.